Homemaker
'' is one of several periodicals related to homemaking.]] A homemaker handles household responsibilities as his or her main daily activity. While not an occupation in the traditional sense, as it is not usually undertaken for monetary remuneration, a homemaker may work full-time to maintain the home environment. The occupation is typically taken by one adult of a household, such as a parent of a child unless all working age individuals in the household work full-time. If the homemaker is part of the family, a female homemaker is usually termed as housewife, and a male homemaker, a househusband. The domestic consumption work of homemakers provide goods and services directly within a household, such as cooking meals, childcare, household repairs, or the manufacture of clothes and gifts. Common tasks include cleaning, cooking, and looking after children. History In contemporary history, "househusband" is a term used to describe a male parent who is the main caregiver to the children and is the homemaker of the household. The role of housewife is that of a female homemaker who is the main caregiver to the children. Historically, gender roles in world civilization see the private parenting responsibilities going to the housewife, while the public social parenting responsibilities are carried out by the father. In recent years, these roles have become less separate and well defined in Western cultures. The homemaker foundations are cooking, textiles, pottery, storage, manufacturing, music, language, medicine, and teaching.Frederick, C. (1919). General functions Housework is not always a lifetime commitment; many, for economic or personal reasons, return to the workplace. In previous decades, there were many mandatory courses for the young to learn the skills of homemaking. In high school, courses included cooking, nutrition, home economics, family and consumer science (a.k.a. F.A.C.S) and food and cooking hygiene. This last one may underlie the tradition that a homemaker is portrayed wearing an apron. More recently, most of these courses have been abolished, and many youths in high school and college would be more likely to study child development and the management of children's behavior. Household tools The method and function of housework are different in the industrial world and in other countries, with the balance of convenience, labor-saving devices and easier methods being in the industrial homemaker's favor. The reason for this is that mechanical invention has been applied extensively to different tasks of the home. Inventors have developed mechanical labor-saving devices not only for the shop and office, but also for the home. There are, on the market, thousands of household tools, devices and equipment for every domestic need. It only remains for the homemaker to choose between them. Another reason for the great supply and demand for household labor savers in the industrial world is that the homemaker has to face the increasingly complex problem of scarce domestic help. With cheap labor, the need for the mechanical replacers of labor, or "mechanical servants," will not be keenly felt, however, the majority of homemakers perform their own household tasks. It is to this class of homemakers who are actively concerned in domestic work that the labor-saver and improved modern tool most appeal. The homemaker's time and effort are worth conserving by every means. Homemakers should therefore, be eager to buy and use all the household tools which will save her strength and time and liberate her from household drudgery. While some homemakers are "handy" with tools, the fact remains that most homemakers are unfamiliar with the different principles involved in mechanical tools and devices. The homemaker, however, is called to have knowledge of the principles of applied mechanics. Courses in school physics unfortunately leave a student with little practical knowledge that can be applied to domestic equipment. The gaining of knowledge concerning domestic tools may lead the homemaker to purchase good quality equipment, which may assist in saving time and labor. Cooking Most modern-day houses contain sanitary facilities and a means of preparing food. A kitchen is a room or part of a room used by the Homemaker for cooking and food preparation. In the West, a modern kitchen is typically equipped with a stove, a sink with hot and cold running water, a refrigerator and kitchen cabinets. Many homemakers use a microwave oven, a dishwasher and other electric appliances. The main function of a kitchen is cooking or preparing food but it may also be used for dining and entertaining. Cooking is the process of preparing food by applying heat, selecting, measuring and combining of ingredients in an ordered procedure for producing safe and edible food. The process encompasses a vast range of methods, tools and combinations of ingredients to alter the flavor, appearance, texture, or digestibility of food. Factors affecting the final outcome include the variability of ingredients, ambient conditions, tools, and the skill of the individual doing the actual cooking. The diversity of cooking worldwide is a reflection of the aesthetic, agricultural, economic, cultural, social and religious diversity throughout the nations, races, creeds and tribes across the globe. Applying heat to a food usually, though not always, chemically transforms it, thus changing its flavor, texture, consistency, appearance, and nutritional properties. Methods of cooking that involve the boiling of liquid in a receptacle have been practised at least since the 10th millennium BC, with the introduction of pottery. Housekeeping Housekeeping by the homemaker is the care and control of property, ensuring its maintenance and proper use and appearance. A home is a place of residence. In a private home a maid or housekeeper might be employed to do the housekeeping. Housework is work done by the act of housekeeping. Some housekeeping is housecleaning and some housekeeping is home chores. Home chores are housework that needs to be done at regular intervals,Gove, Philip et al. 1961. Webster’s Third New International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged. Springfield, Massachusetts: G & C Merriam Company Housekeeping includes the budget and control of expenditures, preparing meals and buying food, paying the heat bill, and cleaning the house.Ansley, Clark et al. 1935. The Columbia Encyclopedia in One Volume. Morningside Heights, NY: Columbia University Press. Outdoor housecleaning chores include removing leaves from rain gutters, washing windows, sweeping doormats, cleaning the pool, putting away lawn furniture, and taking out the trash.Smallin, Donna. 2006. Cleaning Plain & Simple. Storey Publishing, North Adams, MA. Housecleaning by the homemaker is the systematic process of making a home neat and clean. This may be applied more broadly that just an individual home, or as a metaphor for a similar "clean up" process applied elsewhere such as a procedural reform. In the process of housecleaning general cleaning activities are completed, such as disposing of rubbish, storing of belongings in regular places, cleaning dirty surfaces, dusting and vacuuming. The details of this are various and complicated enough that many books have been published on the subject. How-to sites on the internet have many articles on housecleaning. Tools include the vacuum cleaner, broom and mop. Supplies such as cleaning solutions and sponges are sold in grocery stores and elsewhere. Professional cleaners can be hired for less frequent or specialist tasks such as cleaning blinds, rugs, and sofas. Professional services are also offered for the basic tasks. Safety is a consideration because some cleaning products are toxic and some cleaning tasks are physically demanding. Green cleaning refers to cleaning without causing pollution. The history of housecleaning has links to the advancement of technology. Laundry Laundry refers to the act of washing clothing and linens, the place where that washing is done, and/or that which needs to be, is being, or has been laundered. Various chemicals may be used to increase the solvent power of water, such as the compounds in soaproot or yucca-root used by Native American tribes. Soap, a compound made from lye (from wood-ash) and fat, is an ancient and very common laundry aid. Modern washing machines typically use powdered or liquid laundry detergent in place of more traditional soap. Once clean, the clothes have been wrung out — twisted to remove most of the water. Then they were hung up on poles or clotheslines to air dry, or sometimes just spread out on clean grass. Washing machines and dryers are now fixtures in homes around the world. In some parts of the world, including the USA, Canada, and Switzerland, apartment buildings and dormitories often have laundry rooms, where residents share washing machines and dryers. Usually the machines are set to run only when money is put in a coin slot. In other parts of the world, apartment buildings with laundry rooms are uncommon, and each apartment may have its own washing machine. Those without a machine at home or the use of a laundry room must either wash their clothes by hand or visit a commercial laundromat. A clothes dryer is a household appliance that is used to remove moisture from a load of clothing and other textiles, generally shortly after they are cleaned in a washing machine. Most dryers consist of a rotating drum called a tumbler through which heated air is circulated to evaporate the moisture from the load. The tumbler is rotated relatively slowly in order to maintain space between the articles in the load. In most cases, the tumbler is belt-driven by an induction motor. Using these machines may cause clothes to shrink, become less soft (due to loss of short soft fibers/ lint) and fade. For these reasons, as well as environmental concerns, many people use open air methods such as a clothes line and clotheshorse. Laundry starch is used in the laundering of clothes. Starch was widely used in Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries to stiffen the wide collars and ruffs of fine linen which surrounded the necks of the well-to-do. During the 19th century and early 20th century, it was stylish to stiffen the collars and sleeves of men's shirts and the ruffles of girls' petticoats by applying starch to them as the clean clothes were being ironed. Aside from the smooth, crisp edges it gave to clothing, it served practical purposes as well. Dirt and sweat from a person's neck and wrists would stick to the starch rather than to the fibers of the clothing, and would easily wash away along with the starch. After each laundering, the starch would be reapplied. Today the product is sold in aerosol cans for home use. Maintenance Homemakers that follow predictive maintenance techniques determine the condition of in-service equipment in order to predict when maintenance should be performed. This approach offers cost savings over routine or time-based maintenance, because tasks are performed only when warranted. Homemakers that follow preventive maintenance methods ensure that household equipment and the house are in satisfactory operating condition by providing for inspection, detection, and correction of incipient failures either before they occur or before they develop into major defects. Home maintenance Home maintenance involves the diagnosis and resolution of problems in a home, and is related to home maintenance to avoid such problems. Many types of maintenance are "Do it yourself" (DIY) projects. Maintenance is not necessarily the same as home improvement, although many improvements can result from repairs or maintenance. Often the costs of larger repairs will justify the alternative of investment in full-scale improvements. It may make just as much sense to upgrade a home system (with an improved one) as to repair it or incur ever-more-frequent and expensive maintenance for an inefficient, obsolete or dying system. For a DIY project, also useful is the established limits on time and money investments before a repair (or list of repairs) become overwhelming and discouraging, and less likely to ever be completed. Lawn maintenance Homemakers that have a lawn responsibility adhere to seasonal lawn care practices, which vary to some extent depending on the climate zone and type of grass that is grown (whether cool season or warm season varieties). Various recognized method used by homemakers in lawn care are observed in any area. At spring or early summer, homemakers seed, sod, or sprig a yard when the ground is warmer. Summer lawn care by homemakers have lawn mower at high cutting for cool season grass, and lower cutting for warm season lawns. At the autumn time, lawns are mowed by homemakers at a lower height and thatch buildup that occurs in warm season grasses are removed. Lawn experts are divided in their opinions on this. Homemakers do add sandy loam and apply fertilizer, containing some type of wetting agent. Cool season lawns are planted in the autumn with adequate rainfall. Lawn care in the winter is minimal, requiring only light feedings of organic material, such as green-waste compost, and minerals to encourage earthworms and beneficial microbes. Management Household management by the homemaker is the act of overseeing the organizational, financial, and day-to-day operations of a house or estate. It differs from housekeeping, which consists of the physical maintenance and cleaning of a house. Household purchasing Household purchasing refers to homemaker's attempt to acquire goods or services to accomplish the goals of the household. Though there are several households that attempt to set standards in the purchasing process, processes can vary greatly between households. Typically the word “purchasing” is not used interchangeably with the word “procurement”, since procurement typically includes other concepts. Home makers decide the market goods that the household will buy, such as the groceries which have been bough at a grocer's. Another important purchase handled by homemakers is the power source used for appliances. Home or other building heating may include boilers, furnaces, and water heaters. Compressed natural gas is used in rural homes without connections to piped-in public utility services, or with portable grills. However, due to being less economical than LPG, LPG (Propane) is the dominant source of rural gas for natural gas-powered ranges and/or ovens, natural gas-heated clothes dryers, heating/cooling and central heating. The amount of usages is determined by factors such as natural gas prices. Servants Homemakers manage household workers or "domestic servants". The "servant problem" is due to the fact that people formerly engaged in household service have entered industries and prefer these conditions with high pay and freer hours to the more confining conditions which govern housework at present. Even with normal industrial conditions, there is every indication that service for the home will be increasingly more difficult to obtain — and also to keep. It is therefore worth while for any employer of household labor to study the "servant problem," The social stigma which commonly attaches to the appellation "servant." Naturally, "servant" still carries with it the old world idea of an inferior, a dependent or subordinate. And in this country of democracy, whose very air breathes the idea that "all men are created free and equal" (meaning with equal opportunities), neither men nor women like to be in positions of implied inferiority to the people for-whom they work. It is only fair to acknowledge that household service is still the only occupation for some where this inferiority is implied, or often keenly felt by the worker. The adoption of the modern employer-employee basis means, first, that in mind the hoomemaker does not think of the household worker as an inferior. Second, instead of calling employyee servant, the individual is a household assistant, a household helper, or "houseworker", which counteracts social stigma. understand its causes, and particularly give attention to the relation and attitude between the homemaker and any employee an individual may engage. Work strategies In sociology, household work strategy is the division of labour between members of a household, whether implicit or the result of explicit decision–making, with the alternatives weighed up in a simplified type of cost-benefit analysis.http://www.essex.ac.uk/Sociology/people/staff/pahl.shtm''Divisions of Labour'' Ray Pahl (1984) It is a plan for the relative deployment of household members' time between the three domains of employment: # in the market economy, including home-based self-employment second jobs, in order to obtain money to buy goods and services in the market; # domestic production work, such as cultivating a vegetable patch or raising chickens, purely to supply food to the household; and # domestic consumption work to provide goods and services directly within the household, such as cooking meals, child–care, household repairs, or the manufacture of clothes and gifts. Household work strategies may vary over the life-cycle, as household members age, or with the economic environment; they may be imposed by one person or be decided collectivelyhttp://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O88-householdworkstrategy.html. See also * Handyman * Home economics * Scientific management Footnotes References * Lopata, H. Z. (1994). Circles and settings: Role changes of American women. SUNY series in gender and society. Albany: State University of New York Press. "Homemaker" Page 137+. * Arnold, E. (1993). Voices of American homemakers. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. * Harvey, L. S. (1920). Food facts for the home-maker. Boston: Houghton Mifflin company. * Frederick, C. (1919). Household engineering; Scientific management in the home. Chicago: American school of home economics. * Snedden, D. (1919). Vocational homemaking education: Some problems and proposals. New York City: Teachers College, Columbia University. * Kinne, H., & Cooley, A. M. (1914). Shelter and clothing: A textbook of the household arts. New York: Macmillan. Further reading * Friendly Visiting Among the Poor By Mary Ellen Richmond. "The Homemaker", Page 64+. * How to Perform the 4 Key Responsibilities of a Career Professional Homemaker, eHow. * The new face of homemakers; American Demographics, BNET. * Category:Home economics Category:Occupations